Events Today

You're a St. Louisan, so you're familiar with the blend of awe and pride inspired by the Gateway Arch. It's a monument to westward expansion and the creation of America, sure, but it's ours. Last year the Jefferson National Expansion Memorial became the country's 60th national park. On the one-year anniversary of the declaration that made it official, Type Hike, a group that supports the outdoors through typography, presents Arch, a show and sale of 60 art-driven posters that depict our big shiny baby. They will be on display from 6 to 9:30 p.m. Friday, February 22, at Brennan's Work & Leisure (3015 Locust Street; www.typehike.com/arch). Admission is free, and proceeds from poster sales benefit the Gateway Arch Park Foundation. Afterward, some posters will be on display at the Arch through March 24.
free admission

The impressive growth of the St. Louis theater scene has allowed a greater number and variety of voices to tell their own stories. The Q Collective, a group dedicated to presenting works by and about transgender, agender and genderfluid people, opens its second season with its inaugural Transluminate Festival. Transluminate features five short plays by local playwrights Charlie Meyers, Elon Ptah and J.D. Charles. Charles' "Miss Arkansas" is about a transgender woman entering a beauty pageant, an act that infuriates another competitor. "Homebody," by Ptah, shows how a black trans guy named Malcolm moves from self-loathing to self-love, while Meyers' "Breanna" explores the relationship between Andy and Breanna, two former humans now living in android bodies in a futuristic, post-human society. Transluminate is performed at 7 p.m. Thursday and Friday and at 4:30 and 8 p.m. Saturday (February 21 to 23) at the Chapel (6238 Alexander Drive; theqcollective.theater). Tickets are $10 to $20.
$10-$20

Austrian-born artist Oliver Laric creates work that explores image creation and repetition, which he displays on both the museum and gallery circuit and the online realm. For his new exhibition, Currents 116: Oliver Laric, he presents his video animation Betweenness, which features repurposed mushrooms, people, anime characters and some snippets of the CT scan of the Saint Louis Art Museum's mummy, Amen-Nestawy-Nakht, all morphing into animals. The cycle of looped video blurs all of these borrowed images together, which reveals their shared shapes and forms. Laric also sculpted his own version of Reclining Pan (long on display in the museum's gallery 236) using 3D scans of the original. He used the digital files to "print" sections of the sculpture in various materials on a 3D printer, which he then assembled. Currents 116: Oliver Laric is on display in galleries 249 and 250 from February 22 to May 27 at the Saint Louis Art Museum (1 Fine Arts Drive; www.slam.org). The museum is open Tuesday through Sunday, and admission is free.
free admission

Ice skating and hot cocoa go together like Christmas and carols. Every year, Steinberg Skating Rink in Forest Park (www.steinbergskatingrink.com) is open from early November to late February, providing the Midwest's largest outdoor rink for the low price of $7 a day. Your $7 is good for the whole day, from 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. Sunday through Thursday and 10 a.m. to 11 p.m. Friday and Saturday. Skate rental is another $7, which is a steal — but just because it's so affordable doesn't mean you have to bring the family. If you're tired of the in-laws, their kids or just want to get out of the house, Steinberg is there for you. Nothing clears the head like a brisk skating session and hot cocoa by an outdoor fire.
$7

Once reserved for the wealthy and the social elite, portraiture has been democratized down to the informal level of the selfie. Freed from its staid origins, the modern portrait can be heroic representation, transgressive, humorous or an act of wish fulfillment. Current Profile, the new exhibition at the Craft Alliance Center of Art + Design (6640 Delmar Boulevard, University City; www.craftalliance.org), explores contemporary portraiture in all media. The show features everything from Richard Wehrs' sculpted bust of an alien warrior to Cayce Zavaglia's embroidered image of a young woman in pigtails, and all points in between. Current Profile opens with a free reception from 6 to 8 p.m. Friday, January 11. The exhibition remains up through March 17.
free admission

Abstract art is a term that includes a wide variety of media: monochromatic color fields, hard-edged abstraction and its flat colors, and the sharply defined edges and optical illusions inherent in op-art's geometric forms. What links all of these styles together is that they are divorced from the traditional representation of physical objects. For its new exhibition Printing Abstraction, the Saint Louis Art Museum draws from its own holdings of abstract art created by printmakers. The show is something of an expansion of the museum's ongoing main exhibition, Graphic Revolution: American Prints 1960 to Now, in that it offers more examples of the printmakers' art and the key role it's played in the promulgation of abstract art. Printing Abstraction is on display from Tuesday through Sunday (November 30 to March 31) in galleries 234 and 235 of the Saint Louis Art Museum (1 Fine Arts Drive; www.slam.org). Admission is free.
free admission

Back in the days before Twitter, diplomacy was a face-to-face business. Representatives from two nations or groups would meet together to discuss the issue at hand like adults and try to come to some sort of agreeable compromise. In the early 1990s, these quaint methods enabled leaders of the Palestine Liberation Organization and Israeli government to meet, however reluctantly. Norwegian diplomat Mona Juul and her husband Terje Rød-Larsen used back-channel relationships to very quietly establish connections with Israeli Prime Minister Yitzahk Rabin and PLO Chairman Yasser Arafat, and encouraged them to sit down and talk about building a road to peace. In a room supplied with food and drink, the leaders of two warring parties engaged with one another as people and found the spark of a human connection. J.T. Rogers' Tony Award-winning play Oslo dramatizes those meetings and that fleeting moment when two enemies shook hands and agreed to make peace. The Repertory Theatre St. Louis presents Oslo Tuesday through Sunday (February 8 to March 3) at the Loretto-Hilton Center (130 Edgar Road; www.repstl.org). Tickets are $19 to $92.
$19-$92

The Ann Metzger National Biennial Exhibition is the St. Louis Artists Guild's commitment to contemporary art made real. Metzger was a longtime member of the Artists Guild, and she bequeathed money to the institution to fund cash prizes for working artists. The exhibition features art in all media by more than 50 artists from across the country. This year's show opens with a free reception from 5 to 8 p.m. Friday, January 11, at the St. Louis Artists Guild (12 North Jackson Avenue, Clayton; www.stlouisartistsguild.org), and includes abstract art, figurative painting, sculpture and digital media. The Biennial remains on display through February 23.
free admission

In a year in which the Missouri History Museum exhibition team has given us the stories of St. Louis' greatest civil rights freedom fighters and returned us to the glory days of Route 66, it would take something truly spectacular for the museum to outdo itself — and yet somehow it's done just that. The museum's new exhibition, Panoramas of the City, is as close to time travel as you can get without involving Morlocks. The show comprises seven floor-to-ceiling size images of scenes such as Charles Lindbergh speaking to a crowd of 100,000 people on Art Hill at his "welcome home" party and a 1920 march on Olive Street by the League of Women Voters. These massive photographs are joined by props and interactive media displays that give viewers a better understanding of the historical context of each scene. More than 60 panoramas of various sizes round out the exhibit, which will be on display from September 2 to March 24, 2019, at the Missouri History Museum (Lindell Boulevard and DeBaliviere Avenue; www.mohistory.org).
free admission

The Muny is just about to open its landmark 100th season, and its neighbor, the Missouri History Museum (Lindell Boulevard and DeBalivere Avenue; www.mohistory.org), celebrates the occasion with an exhibit dedicated to the history of America's largest outdoor theater. Muny Memories: 100 Years on Stage features exhibits that explain the founding of the theater, display favorite memories from stars and staff, and give a look back stage to see how the dedicated technical crew creates and rigs all those sets and lights. You can also take a look at programs from the Muny's long, storied past. Muny Memories opens on Saturday, June 9, and remains on display daily through June 2, 2019. Admission is free.
free admission

Annie Desmond is turning sixteen, and she and her friends plan to celebrate in a big way — tattoos may be involved. They're like many black teenagers, dreaming big but surrounded by little that offers hope of something better. Annie's mother works herself near to death to support them, but when Annie's friend Margie tells the group she's pregnant, they hatch a plan that's shortsighted at best. Kirsten Greenidge's play Milk Like Sugar has been praised for the poetry and honesty of its dialogue and its unflinching look at the future being created for black youth. The Black Rep presents Milk Like Sugar at 7 p.m. Wednesday and Thursday, 8 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday at Washington University's Hotchner Studio Theatre inside the Edison Center (6445 Forsyth Boulevard; www.theblackrep.org). Tickets are $15 to $40.
$15-$40

Tony Kushner's monumental drama Angels in America, Part One: Millennium Approaches refracts the early days of the AIDS crisis through the prism of politics, religion, sex, the Red Scare, drugs and Antarctica. All of the characters and places are created by a smallish cast that must play young and old, dying and dead, and fantasy and reality. At the heart of all of this is a series of love stories that smash into the cold philosophy of its 1980s setting. "It's everyone for themselves" is a horrible way to live and a worse way to die. The Washington University Performing Arts Department presents Millennium Approaches at 7 p.m. Friday and Saturday and 2 p.m. Sunday (February 22 to March 3) at Washington University's Edison Theatre (6445 Forsyth Boulevard; www.edison.wustl.edu). Tickets are $15 to $20.
$15-$20

Space is deep, to quote Hawkwind, and yet scientists believe all living creatures on Earth contain stellar elements within their genetic makeup. Artist Christine Corday explores this union of humans and the stars in her new exhibition Relative Points, which was commissioned by the Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis. Eleven of Corday's large sculptural forms, which are each made of more than 10,000 pounds of elemental metals and metalloid grit, will be arranged within the museum in a pattern of Corday's choosing. The sculptures, which resemble slightly squashed black marshmallows more than four feet high, are intended to be touched; they're essentially the same base elements as humans, after all. During the course of the exhibit, the shapes will change gradually from repeated contact and the inexorable force of universal gravitational attraction. You'll have your first opportunity to get close and personal with Corday's work at the opening reception, which takes place from 7 to 9 p.m. Friday, January 18, at Contemporary Art Museum St. Louis (3750 Washington Boulevard; www.camstl.org). Christine Corday: Relative Points remains fixed in space through April 21.
free admission

All of Salem is whispering about what happened in the forest last night. There are rumors that Rev. Parris' daughter Betty was caught dancing naked in the woods with several other girls — which can only mean witchcraft. Now renowned witchcraft expert Rev. John Hale is on his way to town to get to the bottom of matters. It's a long way to the bottom, and before Hale and Parris can find it, dozens of villagers will be accused of witchcraft by the young women and hanged for their crimes. How can Salem, perched on the raw edge of the new world, survive the loss of so many people? Arthur Miller's searing drama The Crucible was inspired by the insanity and paranoia of McCarthy-era America and depicts a society devouring itself in pursuit of an invisible enemy. Stray Dog Theatre presents The Crucible at 8 p.m. Thursday to Saturday (February 7 to 23) at the Tower Grove Abbey (2336 Tennessee Avenue; www.straydogtheatre.org). Tickets are $25 to $30.
$25-$30

Stephen is an up-and-coming press secretary for a surprising presidential candidate. Or maybe that's just Stephen's spin in action. He's constantly spinning something, whether in a "candid" interview with a New York Times reporter or while regaling a backroom audience with stunning tales of his political acumen. He's young and handsome, and with his candidate's impending move to the Oval Office, there's no height he can't metaphorically scale. Of course the higher you rise, the harder the fall. House of Cards creator Beau Willimon wrote his politics 'n' power drama Farragut North after years of working on other people's campaigns, most notably Howard Dean's failed presidential run in 2004. St. Louis Actors Studio presents Farragut North at 8 p.m. Thursday through Saturday and 3 p.m. Sunday (February 8 to 24) at the Gaslight Theater (358 North Boyle Avenue; www.stlas.org). Tickets are $30 to $35.
$30-$35